The present invention pertains to detection of people and particularly to recognition of people. More particularly, the invention pertains to detection and recognition of people under dark conditions.
The invention may be related to a patent application entitled “Infrared and Visible Fusion Face Recognition System”, having Ser. No. 10/987,806, and filed approximately concurrently with the present application.
There are many commercial off the shelf (COTS) face recognition systems (FRS) available for use. All of these systems may require strict face positioning in front of a camera and good illumination. Such conditions are often not available where face recognition may be needed or desired. In many practical situations, the subject being sought for detection and recognition may be moving while passing in front of a camera used for such tasks. Further, the illumination of the subject may be inadequate or inconsistent, or there may be total darkness.
Art that may be relevant includes U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,260 B1, issued Apr. 9, 2002, entitled “Near-IR Human Detector”, and by Pavlidis et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,049 B2, issued Apr. 6, 2004, entitled “Near-Infrared Disguise Detection”, and by Pavlidis et al.; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/077,672, filed Feb. 15, 2002, entitled “Near-Infrared Method and System for Use in Face Detection”, and by Pavlidis et al.; all of which are incorporated herein by reference. The assignee of these patent documents is the same assignee of the present invention.